Understanding Magic: One-Shot vs Continuous Magic
This post is part of a series of animistic, spirit-oriented spellcasting for beginners. Go to the masterpost to see them all.
Terms, definitions, and labels are extremely powerful. They create lines and divisions. This can create blinders which prevent us from seeing the whole picture. But it's also dang useful for navigating a murky informational swamp.
I would like to provide you with a few informational labels to help you sort information into boxes for safekeeping. Do not forget, however, to discard these labels in the future once you've outgrown their use.
I find a very good way to categorize spellwork is based on their longevity and how they are expected to operate. The best way to explain this is to jump right in.
First of all, what's a spell?
For the purposes of this series of posts, a spell is a discrete pool of metaphysical power patterned to achieve a distinct goal or outcome. This combination of power and intent is meant to have a literal effect on the physical world and its inhabitants.
Like your favorite fanfic intended to be published in one part without any followups, one-shot spells are spells which are cast once, do something specific, and then that's it.
In my way of working, the major thing that makes it one-shot magic is that either:
The spell was never tied to a physical object (in the case of pure energy work or astral magic), or,
The spell was tied to a physical object (like a candle, paper sigil, or incense), but that object will be destroyed in order to release the spell, and,
The spell is intended to do something specific once and then stop.
One way to envision one-shot magic is like assigning a specific quest to a fairy knight. He gallops out of your castle and across the kingdom to achieve what you desire. When he accomplishes the task (manifests your goal), or when he runs out of his fairy bread (the energy of the spell), he disappears - whichever comes first.
Once the knight has left your castle, it's really hard to get him to change his course of action. If you realized you made a mistake sending him out, you're probably going to have to send another knight to stop him.
Also if you tell him his job and then lock him in a room he will DESTROY it trying to get out and do your bidding. This is a little more like 201 stuff but keep that in mind :)
They come in clutch when you need something specific to happen once, but you don't need it to continue happening on a regular basis. Examples include finding a job, getting Becky fired, getting a lease for an apartment you can afford, or finding the perfect pet for your lifestyle.
They are set-and-forget. Once the initial casting is complete, you do not need to go back to recharge or monitor the spell.
You can pre-cast spells and store them inside of physical vessels (again, that's the candles, incense, paper sigil, etc etc) and wait to release the magic until you're ready.
The initial spellcasting is meant to provide them with enough power to fully complete your goal. This means they can be more draining to cast, especially if you let your personal power charge them (a fix to this, however: pre-cast the spell and continuously charge the disposable vessel over time to slowly boost it).
Because the spell is not tied to any physical vessel once the casting is complete, it can be a little more difficult for beginners or those without strong psychic senses to track, monitor, or modify their spells if they choose to.
It's an ineffective way of approaching magic in your life that needs to be both ongoing and easy to manage.
As opposed to one-shot spells, continuous magic is magic which I define as being both:
Bound to a physical vessel (such as a piece of jewelry or a container), and,
Intended to provides the same effect continuously through an extended period of time.
One way to conceptualize continuous magic is like a personal assistant that stands around you at all times. The assistant constantly works to bring you the things you've asked for, or keep away things you don't like. The assistant is also open to input and suggestions, as long as they don't stray too far out of his job description.
However, your assistant will only work if they get their monthly paycheck (that's the recharging!).
Because this assistant is always around, you can put him on unpaid leave at any time or restart his employment. You don't have to send a knight to convince the assistant not to come to work that day, you can just tell the assistant that for the time being his services are no longer necessary.
Pros of continuous magic:
They are ideal when you need a magical effect to constantly work without a set end date. Examples include most protections and general prosperity spells.
Once set up, they are easy to deal with and manage. Recharging is much easier and faster than the initial casting, and often needs to only be done monthly (or less!).
If you need to pause or dismantle the effects of the spell, doing so is relatively easy, and the spell can be started up again later.
Monitoring and modifying the spell is usually a breeze.
Cons of continuous magic:
The magic radiates out of the vessel, so where the vessel is actually matters a lot. Unless you have a taglock that forwards the magic to a different person or address, it's effects will spill out around it.
Searching for, or creating, a suitable vessel is typically more of a hassle and can be more expensive than one-shot magic.
You gotta have a place to store these bad boys. Vessels can be chosen to be very small and discreet, but their density and mass is an inherent and unavoidable factor.
Sometimes you make a continuous magic vessel and forget about it, and 3 months later you're like "why is this HAPPENING" and then 18 months later you find the jar in the back of your closet and you and your brain do this GIF with yourselves:
And boom, yeah, that's it. Two categories of practical magic.
Now I know what you're asking. Are there more categories?
Twist: There's not even these categories. Remember, we must not consider these two categories to be absolute. You cannot find one-shotness or continousness in the DNA of magic.
As varied and infinite as techniques, beliefs, and intents are, there are that many categories of magic.
An astute reader may already be asking, "what about spells meant to do one thing and stop, but you don't destroy the vessel they're in? What about energy work meant to last long-term but it's never tied to anything?"
Valid questions indeed, and worthy of much consideration.
Our purposes here are to not to try and wrangle all of magic into convenient boxes; that is too grand a task for any one blog series.
Even wrangling one little field plot of magic is serious work in and of itself. Our purpose here is instead to provide foundational guidelines and suggestions for those who want to understand practical magic and get to casting it just as soon as possible.
And not even all methodologies of practical magic, either -- just the ones I'm familiar enough with to share.
